Renee Cosom, a 42-year-old Black / African American female from Philadelphia, was killed on January 29, 2018, inside the Northeast Philadelphia home where she lived on Greeby Street. She was remembered as a Philadelphia native, someone known to loved ones by nicknames including “Big Mama,” “Nana Bum,” and “Nay Nay,” and someone whose life was closely tied to her mother, Adeline Hill.
That bond made the crime even more devastating: police found both women shot to death in the same home that night.
Officers were called to the 1200 block of Greeby Street shortly after 11 p.m. When they arrived, Cosom's boyfriend, Michael Drennon, was at the house and let police inside. Investigators found Adeline Hill, 66, dead in her wheelchair on the first floor, and Renee Cosom dead in a second-floor hallway. Early reports said Hill had been shot in the head and Cosom had been shot in the face or head. Both women were pronounced dead at the scene. Police recovered a. 38 Special revolver in a bedroom, with three live rounds and two fired cartridge casings.
Drennon quickly became the focus of the investigation. At first, he claimed that two men had entered the house and killed the women, and he specifically tried to point suspicion toward James Crawford, Cosom's former boyfriend. The history between the three people became a major part of the case. Cosom had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Crawford, and after a related hearing, Drennon had threatened to kill Crawford. In December 2016, more than a year before Cosom and Hill were killed, Drennon shot Crawford after Crawford appeared near Cosom's home and alerted police to where Cosom and Drennon were. Crawford survived gunshot wounds to his face and shoulder, and Drennon was charged in that shooting.
By the time Cosom and Hill were killed in January 2018, Drennon was on house arrest for the Crawford shooting, and the house arrest location was Cosom's home. That detail became important because it placed him at the residence and helped explain why investigators looked closely at his account. Police took Drennon to the homicide unit around midnight after the bodies were found. Detectives later interviewed him, advised him of his Miranda rights, and questioned him over a long period. Court records later noted he spent about 32 hours in the interrogation room, though he was given opportunities to eat, use the bathroom, smoke cigarettes, and sleep.
Drennon was eventually arrested and charged in the murders of Renee Cosom and Adeline Hill. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime in connection with the double homicide. His attempted murder case involving James Crawford was later consolidated with the murder case because prosecutors argued the events were connected through Cosom, her relationships with Crawford and Drennon, and Drennon's attempt to blame Crawford for the killings.
At trial, the Commonwealth presented the killings not as a mystery involving unknown intruders, but as the final act in a violent chain of events involving Drennon, Cosom, and Crawford. Drennon continued to suggest Crawford was responsible for the deaths, but the trial court found that the credible evidence pointed to Drennon, not Crawford, as the person who killed Cosom and Hill. The prosecution was also allowed to present evidence connected to the earlier Crawford shooting, including a self-recorded video from Drennon's phone made shortly before that shooting in which he rapped about wanting to shoot someone in the face. Cosom's personal planner also became an issue at trial because it contained entries suggesting she feared Drennon and had experienced violence in the relationship.
A jury found Michael Drennon guilty of the murders of Renee Cosom and Adeline Hill, along with offenses tied to the earlier shooting of James Crawford. On September 30, 2021, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Drennon appealed, challenging the weight and sufficiency of the evidence, the consolidation of the cases, the denial of his suppression motion, and other trial rulings. In 2023, the Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected his arguments and affirmed the judgment of sentence, leaving his convictions and life-without-parole punishment in place.
